Alex Fraser

Who was Alex Fraser?

Alex Fraser was a major innovator in the development of the computer modeling of population genetics and his work has stimulated many advances in genetic research over the past decades.

His efforts in the 1950s and 1960s had a profound impact on the development of computational models of evolutionary systems. His seminal work, "Simulation of genetic systems by automatic digital computers", is quoted in the literature to this day.

Fraser was born in London, UK, and lived in Hong Kong for most of his youth. He studied at the University of New Zealand, and later went to the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Sydney, Australia.

It was at the CSIRO where Fraser made his seminal contributions to evolutionary computation. His earliest work was done on the SILIAC computer that was installed for the University of Sydney in 1956. The SILIAC was the Australian cousin to the ILLIAC machine that was developed at the University of Illinois. The machine was said to be running well when one could hear a 'rhythmic clicking of the relays inside it.'